Trillium Line begins final 21-day testing phase

Trial running begins today on the Trillium Line, one of the final steps before Ottawa’s new north-south line opens to the public.

“This is TransitNEXT’s final exam, and it will be a rigorous one,” Renee Amilcar, Transit Services general manager, told councillors and the media last Thursday.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The 21-day trial running period includes a 14-day reliability testing period that begins today, which simulates the conditions of normal passenger service, followed by a seven-day second phase that looks at daily operational and maintenance scenario evaluations.

Ottawa's director of rail construction says this is a big moment for residents living in Ottawa's south end and students at Carleton University who will use the Trillium Line.

"I think it will be a big sigh of relief for all those people once we go into service in a few weeks," Richard Holder told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal.

"But, certainly for the city team there's been a lot of hours and a lot of work to get us to where we are today so we're very excited and very happy to be starting the trial running."

During the 14-day reliability testing, OC Transpo and TransitNEXT will aim to achieve a 98.5 per cent average for on-time departures.

If the 21-day testing period runs smoothly, the long-delayed Trillium Line could open to the public in mid-November. The 16-kilometre, north-south line that will run between Bayview Station and Riverside South, with a spur to the Ottawa International Airport, was originally scheduled to open to the public in August 2022.

"We're cautiously confident because we’re not at the end yet, but we're moving through the processes that are required to finish off the job such that we get to revenue service, in about six weeks," Holder told CTV News Ottawa on Monday.

Councillors and the public will receive a daily performance report on the trial running Monday through Friday. The summary will include daily performance, the 14-day rolling average and any issues identified through the 14-day trial running period.

14-day testing

The 14-day reliability testing period will see OC Transpo and TransitNEXT simulate the normal public schedule, aiming to achieve a 98.5 per cent average for on-time departures. Trains must depart within 30 seconds of their scheduled time.

OC Transpo says on-time performance will be measured by assessing on-time departures at terminus stations for both Lines 2 and 4 – Bayview and Limebank Stations on Line 2, and South Keys and Airport stations on Line 4. The daily performance is a measure of on-time departures divided by the number of planned departures. 

The trial running will also be used to ensure safety (identifying and addressing any safety concerns), testing equipment and infrastructure and fine-tuning operations along the north-south line.

Officials have said that if an on-time performance of 78 per cent of less is recorded on a single day during the trial running period, additional testing days will be automatically added to the trial running.

"It would need to be a significant issue with one of the systems or one of the vehicles for us to have a failure on a particular day and for us to have to restart the process," Holder said. "We've been running trains now for pretty much the whole year, we've been in a pre-trial running period for many, many weeks and the performance of the system just keeps getting better and better. We have had some system issues and as they occur we fix them."

OC Transpo says the on-time performance by TranstiNEXT was 99.12 per cent in the 10 days between Sept. 20 and Oct. 1 leading into the trial running period.

Representatives of TranstiNEXT, OC Transpo, the Independent Certifier, the System Integration Verifier and the Maintainer will take part in the daily testing and commission team meeting, where data related to actual departures will be reviewed. The trial running will be overseen and validated by the Independent Certifier.

7-day second phase

Once the 14-day trial running is complete, OC Transpo and TransitNext will begin the daily operational and maintenance scenario evaluations.

The seven-day phase is set aside for operations and maintenance teams to work through various scenarios that are encountered during regular service. Officials say it will allow the maintainer and operations team to “test and verify operating procedures, address any gaps that are identified, while continuing to practice and gain experience on the system.”

Once the three-week trial running is complete, OC Transpo will move towards "substantial completion," with three weeks set aside for final readiness work and regulatory approvals.

A graphic showing the steps left to take the launch the Trillium Line LRT to the public. Step 2, Trial Running, begins Oct. 7, 2024. (OC Transpo/handout)